120 



>TEM STRUCTURE OF Hemiteliii Capensis. 



not fuse with each other at all in the gap. As they approach 

 the outer margin of the bundle tube they again separate from 

 it and form two of a ring of about 13 bundles, which constitute 

 the vascular system of the petiole. The other eleven strands 

 arise from the bundle tube from the edge of the foliar gap and 

 thus have quite a different origin from the other two and are 

 described later in this paper. On the inside the pair descend at 

 a sharp angle and curve round slightly, being never more than 

 a quarter of an inch apart from the bundle tube. They curve 

 back gradually till they again touch the tube at a distance of 

 about 18 to 24 lines below the foliar gap. This is not constant, 

 and it was observed that only about a third of the strands touch 

 the ring again, while the rest pass on down the stem and end 

 blindly by tapering off to a fine point about 3 or 4 inches below 

 the insertion of the leaf (fig. 2). 



^ Those which touch the main ring do not, as in the gap itself, 

 fuse with the stele, but, in all cases observed, only the Scleren- 

 chyma becomes joined, and thus the bundles proper are only in 

 direct contact with the cylinder at the one place, namely, in the 

 foliar gap. It is also seen that, in a fair number of cases, the 



lay 



Fl£ 



Fig- 3- 



pair of leaf traces fuse together a short way below the gap and 

 then pass on downwards as one strand, ending blindly Tike the 



